Chapter 82: The End

Chapter 82: The End

Zheng Chengping heard Zheng Yiyang's call, hesitated for a moment, then put down the consultation book in his hand and walked out.

When he stepped out, he saw it was Zheng Yiyang.

Although Zheng Chengping was the legitimate son at home, his father favored the concubine and her son. Zheng Yiyang was his father's younger half-brother, his second uncle, in other words. Although born of a concubine, Zheng Yiyang had his own abilities and had some say in the family.

He'd only been able to go out and learn a trade because Zheng Yiyang had put in a word with his father.

He'd also learned from Zheng Yiyang that some people, on top of the usual tuition gift, would throw in some silver when learning a trade.

He took this to heart, scraped together what he and his mother could manage, and sent it to the Ding family. After that, compared to others, Doctor Ding had treated him pretty well.

You could say Zheng Yiyang had done him a huge favor.

Zheng Chengping kept his eyes on the consultation book. He wasn't all that interested in the commotion outside, but he'd still picked up bits and pieces.

At the very least, he knew Zheng Yiyang was on the Gu family's side.

Zheng Yiyang, being a constable, had dealt with all kinds of people. Especially since he was familiar with Zheng Chengping, he could tell from the look on his face that he knew something about what was going on.

At the same time, Zheng Yiyang knew all too well this kid's whole "not my problem" attitude.

Zheng Yiyang hinted: "Both sides are telling their own stories now. You're here in this clinic too—seen anything?"

Saying "both sides are telling their own stories" wasn't quite accurate, since Gu Chaoning and Yin Hongxue had already caught Wang Chengyin contradicting himself and backed Doctor Ding into a corner where he was about to spill the truth.

He said this mainly to give Zheng Chengping a chance to score some points with the Gu family.

He was actually a bit surprised—were Doctor Ding and Squire Wang really that bold? Didn't they know Xiaohe Village was under the protection of a county magistrate named Gu Xingzhi?

Gu Chaoning had come back so late from the exam, which meant he'd stuck it out through the final round of the prefectural examination. In other words, there was a good chance he'd passed and become a xiucai.

Even a young xiucai didn't have to kneel before officials.

Weren't they afraid the Gu family would actually report this, and the officials would only punish the two of them?

Sure, it was only ten strokes of the board, but that still hurt!

Zheng Chengping's gaze discreetly swept over the scene outside the clinic. With all this commotion, Doctor Chen, who ran the clinic but was off today, had also shown up.

He'd arrived a bit late and was pretty timid by nature, so he hadn't come out to say anything yet.

Zheng Chengping mulled it over, then said calmly: "I've been organizing the consultation books this whole time, so I'm not really sure what happened."

Doctor Ding and Squire Wang let out half a sigh of relief, only for Zheng Chengping to continue: "However, Zhao Yunxin went to take over Gu Muan's spot at the medicine counter. After Gu Muan came out, the waiting patients joked around with him and gave him a couple of compliments."

"Then I vaguely heard Wang Chengyin mumble, 'Gu Muan, a little country boy, what's there to praise about how he hands out medicine?'"

"He also said, 'In the afternoon, Doctor Ding told him to step on the stool, but he wouldn't do it. Who's he showing off for? If he's so good at acting, I'll teach him a lesson later.'"

At that, what was there left to be unclear about?

Wang Chengyin, seeing that Zheng Chengping—who usually couldn't get a word out even if you beat him with a stick—had spilled everything he'd said like a broken dam, was nervous and on the verge of losing it, but he hadn't completely lost his head yet.

"You're full of crap—"

"Boss!" A loud shout came from behind the crowd, cutting Wang Chengyin off and silencing the whole noisy crowd.

Zheng Yiyang turned around and saw it was his subordinates. His brows first knitted in a stern frown, but seeing how urgent they looked, his heart skipped a beat and he got anxious too.

"What's so urgent!?"

"Boss," the two men who'd arrived pushed through the crowd together. Luckily, everyone made way when they saw they were constables, or they wouldn't have gotten through so fast. "People from the county are here!"

"The county?"

"Yes!" And quite a few of them, too. The two were thrilled, not caring at all about the crowd—after all, once the ceremony got going, everyone would see it anyway.

"The results of the xiucai exam are out! They said our town has produced an Anshou, and they're putting together a procession to go to the Anshou's house to deliver the good news!"

Gu Chaoning, Gu Rong, and Shen Zhenghao all raised their eyebrows. Gu Rong and Shen Zhenghao instinctively looked at Gu Chaoning. Zheng Yiyang caught this from the corner of his eye, was a bit surprised, and instinctively glanced at Gu Chaoning too.

Zheng Yiyang asked: "Do you know the name of the Anshou?"

This was just his own nosiness, but he really was a bit curious.

And he was also curious about how Doctor Ding and Squire Wang would react.

"I know, I know," the constable's voice was happy and excited, cutting through the quiet space. "He's from Xiaohe Village, named Gu Chaoning."

Ha!

Zheng Yiyang was startled, then immediately turned his attention to Doctor Ding and Squire Wang.

Were these two really not afraid at all?

But then he saw Doctor Ding and Squire Wang's faces change dramatically.

Exclamations rang out simultaneously.

"Chaoning! You're the Anshou!? My son has done well, actually passing as the Anshou!"

"Chaoning Ge!"

"Ning Di!"

...

No one had expected that the Lord Anshou himself was right here. The crowd and the constables were all stunned.

Then came wave after wave of congratulations.

Gu Chaoning, hearing the congratulations around him, didn't forget Gu Rong and Shen Zhenghao. The two were also thinking about it but hadn't had the nerve to ask. After Gu Chaoning asked, they nervously looked at the two constables.

"Yes, there are two others—one is Gu Rong, also from Xiaohe Village, and one is Shen Zhenghao from Xiaodukou Town."

Gu Chaoning, Gu Rong, and Shen Zhenghao all rejoiced at the same time again.

Gu Wen, Yin Hongxue, and the others hurriedly offered congratulations to Gu Rong and Shen Zhenghao as well. The others hadn't expected that all three newly minted xiucai in the entire town were right here.

Seeing this, Doctor Ding and Squire Wang's faces turned even paler.

But no one cared about the two of them anymore—everyone was busy congratulating the three xiucai.

In the Great Qi, with the reforms, scholars had become precious again. While the court selected talent, the common people of the Great Qi were living in peace and prosperity, and the number of scholars was truly overwhelming. Gradually, the imperial examinations became more difficult year by year.

With so many scholars in Dudu Town, only three had passed the xiucai examination—that alone showed how competitive it was.

Shen Zhenghao had five classmates from the town's private school who also took the exam. Because their relationship wasn't good, he deliberately didn't inquire about or even avoided news of those five this time, only to find out that none of them had passed.

After all, although those five didn't get along with him, they were genuinely learned. Shen Zhenghao asked himself—his scholarship was indeed better than theirs, but not by much.

Shen Zhenghao's thoughts wandered off, and from the corner of his eye he saw Lord Anshou Gu Chaoning, who was greeting people with clasped hands.

He shared meals and lodging with Gu Chaoning, and they often discussed scholarship together. Who knows if he'd inadvertently picked up some improvement during those days.

...

Now no one wanted to watch the commotion at the Huichun Hall anymore.

Gu Chaoning, invoking the county magistrate's name and threatening to report the matter to the authorities, scared and pressured Wang Chengyin.

After all, he was still just a kid. The one who'd just been denying everything broke down crying and confessed the truth the moment he saw that show of force.

It turned out he couldn't stand that Gu Muan, a farm boy, learned medicine faster than he did, was more skilled than him, and was also well-liked.

This "well-liked" didn't just mean the pharmacy apprentices, the other staff, and the other doctors, but also the patients who came to the clinic.

That day, first Yin Hongxue asked Doctor Ding to let Gu Muan stand on a little wooden stool to grab medicine, and then patients kept praising him. That's what finally made him lose it, and he wanted to teach Gu Muan a lesson.

"I just wanted to push Gu Muan, I didn't mean for it to blow up like this, it was all..." Wang Chengyin paused, as if something had just clicked.

"It was all Doctor Ding. Doctor Ding came over, saw Gu Muan getting up and trying to push me, and flew into a rage, yelling at Gu Muan first."

Doctor Ding looked at Wang Chengyin in disbelief, and Squire Wang caught on and immediately started shifting the blame onto Doctor Ding.

Then it was dog eat dog.

Gu Chaoning cut them off coldly. He picked up Gu Muan, who'd been bawling the whole time.

Since his rebirth, he had resolved to protect his younger brother, to make him happy—yet he'd let his brother go through something like this.

From what Doctor Ding was saying, he probably didn't treat his brother well on a normal day either.

He blamed Doctor Ding for taking their family's apprenticeship gift and then not treating Gu Muan well, and he also blamed himself for not seeing through Doctor Ding sooner and failing to protect Gu Muan.

But how could the Great Traitor wallow in self-blame? Naturally, he just piled that blame onto Doctor Ding and Squire Wang too.

Doctor Ding was feeling regret too.

He'd always looked down on country folk, and having to take in a kid from that kind of family as his apprentice just because he was broke only made him more resentful.

On top of that, the Gu family didn't know how to play the game—they knew he was short on cash, but aside from the apprenticeship gift, they never slipped him any extra silver on the side.

Later, when Squire Wang came to him, he wasn't thinking straight and agreed on the spot.

Afterward, when Gu Wen and the others sold their new-style cabinets, and he heard that the cabinet had originally been made by Gu Wen, he actually felt a little proud.

A few days later, the Ping'an Medical Hall started using the custom new-style medicine cabinets. Someone around him buttered him up, saying he was the teacher of Gu Wen's kid, so Gu Wen would definitely send a cabinet over to show respect to his master.

Doctor Ding thought the guy had a point. For a country family like the Gus, it made sense they didn't send anything before when they had nothing, but once they had something and still didn't send it, that really didn't fly.

But wouldn't you know it, the Gu family really didn't send one.

In that moment, his own anger and the onlookers' nosy, gossipy vibe made him hate Gu Muan even more.

As for today, he hadn't actually meant to blow things up this big either. He'd only wanted to take the chance to teach Gu Muan a lesson, but he hadn't expected Gu Muan to refuse to admit any fault at all, and then Yin Hongxue had shown up out of nowhere.

Things just kept snowballing, and now it had come to this.

Doctor Ding could already feel the contemptuous looks from everyone around him. His legs went weak, and he almost couldn't stay on his feet.

But honestly, no one cared what happened to him.

The onlookers all trailed after the three newly minted xiucai scholars.

Gu Chaoning and the other two thanked everyone for their well-wishes first, then each headed home. Zheng Yiyang and the others also headed back to the yamen to meet up with the county's runners.

Before long, the good-news team had formed up.

There were even people playing trumpets and beating gongs, and they headed off toward Xiaohe Village all loud and festive.

Even though Xiaodukou Town was closer, the Lord Anshou had to come first, right?

And Xiaohe Village had already gotten the news with Gu Chaoning and the others coming back.

No need to go into how excited the village head, clan elder, and the Gu family—Wang Xiuxiu and Chen Youyan—were.

In any case, everyone set aside their field work, washed up, changed into clean clothes, and settled in to wait for the good-news team.

As for Gu Muan, on the way back, once he learned he didn't have to study medicine under Doctor Ding anymore, and with Gu Wen, Gu Chaoning, and Yin Hongxue promising him all sorts of goodies, he finally smiled through his tears.

Hooray! An Geer finally didn't have to be so tough anymore!